String Quartet No.3 (2011)

Duration: 48 minutes

i jacob’s ladder i

ii ricercar i

iii ariadne

iv ricercar ii (after sweelinck)

v ricercar iii

vi jacob’s ladder ii

Instrumentation: Two violins, viola, violoncello.

Premiere: October 16, 2011 at Miller Theater as part of SONiC - Sounds of a New Century (New York, New York), JACK Quartet

Buy the Album: Here

Program Notes

String Quartet No. 3 is larger and more formally ambitious but began as a study on simple lines descending and ascending. Each movement, like Monet’s cathedrals, Cezanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire series or Gerhardt Richter’s abstract cycles, explores a single impetus from different perspectives. The quartet—music of searching and struggle—is massive and exhaustive, lasting nearly fifty minutes with the last four movements, totaling thirty-five minutes of music, played without a break. Three movements are titled “ricercar,” meaning, “to search out.” The second and fifth movements serve as scherzi—each consists of a condensed exploration of a simple idea. The combined third and fourth movements are the work’s center of gravity and are inspired by the path of labyrinths: Ariadne’s labyrinth, both literal and psychological, and Sweelinck’s labyrinthine Fantasia Chromatica. Titled after Jacob’s angelic dream, the outer movements offer mirrored journeys through the vertical staircase of the quartet’s extended range: the opening movement featuring a smooth descent in the first violin, echoed by the other instruments who—in the closing movement—explore and revisit earlier material, ultimately sinking away as the cello violently and stratospherically ascends. — MATTHEW BARNSON

Press

The mammoth String Quartet No. 3 serves as the inevitable centerpiece of the album, and an immense expansion of the musical world Barnson establishes in his first two quartets. Clocking in at 48 minutes, the work consists of six movements that vary considerably in length and sound, yet all feel united in their inventiveness. I found in this music something akin to the work of Cy Twombly– a multitude of vaguely similar gestures sprawled over an array of massive canvases, simultaneously defined and indefinite, crudely shaped on first glance but indescribably subtle and varied upon closer examination. Like Twombly, there’s the feeling that Barnson’s work has ancient roots: movements titled “Ricercar” allude to the Renassaince contrapuntal form that predated the fugue, and those titled “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Ariadne” recall Biblical narratives and the Greek goddess of labyrinths, respectively. These allusions profoundly influence the way each movement is heard, and each point in their own way towards an elusive, indefinable core that ties them all together.

In his mid-thirties, Barnson seems to be part of the wave of young composers being championed by ensembles of both newer and more seasoned ranks. To that end, there’s an unshakeable feeling that the music firmly straddles the threshold of invention and tradition. Barnson’s soundprint is attractive in its ability to be playful and austere within the same frame, and I greatly look forward to hearing how his work with this medium expands into the future. - I Care If You Listen, October 4, 2015